[Tarochin’s Journey #02] Connecting to the Internet from Dreamcast

This article can be listened to as a podcast on the following media.

[Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jO2VxCbwgIAkc4grCKlOH?si=c5b4dbe7b3474dc6)

# Guests and Personalities

**Guest: Taro-chin**
Born in 1985. Real name: Shotaro Oi. In 2008, he started game commentary on Nico Nico Douga under the name “Taro-chin.” After working as a writer and editor for the web news site “Netorabo,” he is currently freelancing. He was a person who loved alcohol, but in 2022, he suffered from a serious illness called “severe acute pancreatitis,” resulting in the necrosis of two-thirds of his pancreas. He is now committed to lifelong sobriety.

**Personality: Shiohigari**
Illustrator / Manga artist, born in 1989. Resides in Tokyo. Known for humorous and romantic illustrations of girls with a soft touch. Self-proclaimed “Cheap Artist.” Started posting illustrations on Twitter and live streaming on Ustream during his student days. After graduating, he worked for a material manufacturer, but when illustrations and short comics he created during work began to gain popularity, he decided to leave and become a full-time “Cheap Artist.”

**SKOOTA Editorial Staff: Yuki Sakoda**
After working for a telecommunications company and a general advertising agency, he founded an anime planning and production company, producing music videos and films. He moved to Kyoto in 2021 and began working to promote the entertainment industry in Kyoto. Recently, he has also been involved in the manga and audio entertainment fields, currently planning and producing audio dramas and webtoons. Additionally, he serves as a producer and advisor for several entertainment companies.

# Table of Contents

—

**#01**
– The meeting of Taro-chin and Shiohigari
– Youthful days spent drinking together
– Taro-chin, in the second year of junior high, tells his mother, who watches Fishing Fool’s Diary, that he won’t go to school
– Going to university to make friends while running a text site
– Beginning to realize he is nobody
– Starting to connect through being a sidekick to famous commentators
– Receiving an invitation to write from that connection
– During a sad period wandering the streets
– The timeless universality of Elephant Kashimashi

**#02**
– Entering the internet through Dreamcast
– Encountering “Samurai Spirits,” which humorously poked fun at “The Pioneer”
– The legendary Shiohigari’s Monster Farm Ustream stream
– The era when there was a comfortable village on the internet
– A time when collaboration was viewed negatively
– Just being on the internet allowed for expression of clusters and personality
– The feeling that the internet was no longer his own
– Having to continue delivering as “Taro-chin” even in his 40s and 50s
– Lessons learned from Gen Hoshino
– A time of enjoying thin philosophy with salt
– Feeling relieved that Shiohigari and Taro-chin’s hands are not shaking

**#03**
– Confirming that while he survived, his views on life and death did not change
– Gaining the right to say, “I almost died, but I didn’t change”
– Starting to play fighting games
– Finding comfort during the COVID-19 pandemic
– The difficulty of ignoring things
– Knowing that he will worry and suffer anyway
– Translating to lead a meaningful life
– Feeling happy when told, “Your writing is easy to read”
– Wanting to explain interesting points
– Needing catchy elements, not just facts
– Wanting to convey right-brained meanings using left-brained language

—

**Entering the Internet through Dreamcast**
[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xesq7YCcc9g&list=PLZvoQyAeMAb0rJccNZGuEY01-kc-Y8fDK&index=3)

**Sakoda:**
Ah, but I have a question. Is that okay?

**Shiohigari:**
Yes, go ahead.

**Taro-chin:**
It’s fine, go ahead.

**Sakoda:**
When you were in the second year of junior high, talking about text sites, that was probably around 1998 or 1999.

**Taro-chin:**
That sounds about right.

**Sakoda:**
Windows 95 had come out, and commercially, PC OS was available. But the internet was still really slow.

**Taro-chin:**
We were using dial-up, right?

**Sakoda:**
That’s right. It was quite early, I thought.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, I was using the school’s computer room for that.

**Sakoda:**
Having that environment in junior high was quite early for that time.

**Taro-chin:**
I was really interested in the internet from the start. The first internet device I had at home was the Dreamcast.

**Shiohigari:**
Ah, the Dreamcast.

**Taro-chin:**
When I bought the Dreamcast, I wanted it not so much for the games but because I wanted a device that could connect to the internet. PCs were expensive, but I thought I could buy a Dreamcast with my New Year’s money. I learned the internet on the Dreamcast, but using it at home was really expensive, costing thousands of yen for an hour. At school, there was an unlimited connection, so I would skip classes to go to the computer room and search for information about Elephant Kashimashi and other things online.

In that context, there was a cheap-looking toy called “The Pioneer,” which was a very advanced robot from China. There was a legendary text site called “Samurai Spirits” that humorously poked fun at it, and it spread as a meme on the internet at that time. I thought, “Wow, there are expressions like this.”

It had a unique atmosphere that was different from manga or interesting books, just a text expression unique to the internet, and I thought it was really interesting and wanted to do it. I started imitating it around the time I was in the third year of junior high. Game commentary is similar; creating videos requires skills and study, but making a website with a homepage builder and typing in text was something I could do myself. Just playing games and talking was something I could easily imitate, so I thought, “I can do this.”

It wasn’t so much about whether it would be interesting; I just wanted to imitate it. It was like wanting to try futsal even if I couldn’t become a professional athlete, or wanting to play guitar even if I wasn’t aiming to be a professional musician. That’s how I felt about playing on the internet.

**Shiohigari:**
I see. I think I had a similar experience.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah.

**Shiohigari:**
I was also looking at text sites and wanted to try making games. I really admired doing something interesting on the internet.

**Taro-chin:**
There were various experiences before encountering illustrations.

**Shiohigari:**
Right, during that time, I was doing things like trying out text-based activities. I never did game commentary, but I did stream games on Ustream, so I encountered that era.

**Taro-chin:**
At that time, I want to say this because I want to pass it on, but Shiohigari’s Ustream stream was shocking when he imitated Monster Farm (laughs).

**Shiohigari:**
That’s still talked about to this day.

**Taro-chin:**
That’s legendary. I hope it gets recorded in Shiohigari’s Wikipedia. He set up a webcam and showed his room, and I remember he had something like a spear.

**Shiohigari:**
To explain, at that time, I was doing game streaming, albeit not much, with a few dozen viewers. I would tweet things like, “Today, I’m going to play Super Mario.”

So, I announced that I would do a Monster Farm stream, which is a very popular game where you raise and battle monsters. When it started, I had a webcam showing me wearing a Godzilla mask and holding something like a spear and shield that my dad brought back from Africa, like a warrior. I became a monster and trained and battled in Monster Farm. After a few years, they die.

**Taro-chin:**
Right.

**Shiohigari:**
I did everything from cradle to grave. I played the soundtrack in the background, starting from meeting the assistant, the monster’s birth, battles, eating, celebrating birthdays, and finally, the death. I did it all like an etude.

**Taro-chin:**
“Shiohigari seems happy.”

**Shiohigari:**
The monster’s status was always displayed as “Shiohigari is doing well,” and I made a collage of that.

**Taro-chin:**
The daily life of the monster on the command selection screen was all done by Shiohigari. It was funny that he wasn’t just wandering from right to left but was doing everything. He was really dedicated.

**Shiohigari:**
That was amazing. People still say that Shiohigari’s Monster Farm stream was really funny, but the rival program at that time was Shin Evangelion, which was airing on Friday Roadshow.

**Taro-chin:**
What were you fighting against?

**Shiohigari:**
Yeah, everyone was talking about Evangelion on Twitter. I remember seeing tweets saying, “If the rival program wasn’t Evangelion, Shiohigari would have been more popular at that time.”

**Taro-chin:**
That was a turning point.

**Shiohigari:**
That might have been a turning point. There was a possibility that I could have become a popular streamer by now.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, that could have happened.

**Shiohigari:**
At that time, I was really sharp. The urge to become someone was intense.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, there was still a positive perception of the potential of the internet.

**Shiohigari:**
Right. The internet was still somewhat closed off back then, around the 2000s? No, maybe around 2010.

**Taro-chin:**
That sounds about right.

**Shiohigari:**
I think it was around the time of the earthquake. The internet is now open to everyone, but it was still a somewhat closed space back then.

—

**Expressing Clusters and Personality Just by Being on the Internet**
[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xesq7YCcc9g&list=PLZvoQyAeMAb0rJccNZGuEY01-kc-Y8fDK&index=3)

**Shiohigari:**
There was still quite an underground atmosphere at that time.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, we were really doing interesting things. In terms of “the beginning and end of internet content,” interesting people did interesting things, and uninteresting people did uninteresting things and faded away.

**Taro-chin:**
There were many interesting people, and the viewers had a good sense of awareness. It was like a village, but a high-literacy village was formed. That was a comfortable place.

**Shiohigari:**
Right. It’s interesting. Nowadays, Vtubers are really popular, and they tend to thrive in groups.

**Taro-chin:**
That’s true.

**Shiohigari:**
Streamers are the same. Recently, popular streamers have been playing Grand Theft Auto, and there are various groups like Nijisanji and Hololive, where people enjoy the dynamics within those groups, with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands participating. But back then, it was more minimal, with game commentators and Ustream streamers.

**Taro-chin:**
Things have really changed.

**Shiohigari:**
They have changed.

**Taro-chin:**
Collaboration was initially viewed negatively.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s right.

**Taro-chin:**
People would say they didn’t want to hear the voices of strangers.

**Shiohigari:**
Exactly.

**Taro-chin:**
Collaborations were often met with backlash.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s true.

**Taro-chin:**
The term “collaboration” might not have even existed back then, but it was common for a single streamer to be seen as a close presence, and there would be backlash like, “Don’t bring some unknown friend in front of me.”

**Shiohigari:**
That was definitely the case.

**Taro-chin:**
That was the norm.

**Shiohigari:**
Right. I was someone who wanted to meet people, so I would often get criticized in that narrow village. I was the type of person who wanted to meet others, which is why I met Taro-chin and suggested we go out for drinks.

**Taro-chin:**
I understand.

**Shiohigari:**
Yeah. I brought that kind of atmosphere to the internet, and there were people who really disliked it.

**Taro-chin:**
There were definitely people like that. Even now, there are still people like that, but back then, it was clearly categorized as bad.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s right.

**Taro-chin:**
I thought it was fine to just drink and have fun. I felt like people were acting superior, thinking they were famous, and I was the type to say, “If there’s an offline meeting, invite me.”

**Shiohigari:**
So you would drink with viewers.

**Taro-chin:**
Exactly. And through those opportunities, I became friends with people, some of whom I still have close relationships with today, even attending their weddings.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s true.

**Taro-chin:**
I used to drink with Gari-kun every week.

**Shiohigari:**
I think that’s how it is. When I first met Taro-chin, it felt like that too. It was like, “Anyone can come along.”

**Taro-chin:**
People would bring their friends who were also doing Ustream.

**Shiohigari:**
Right. And we just clicked.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, it worked out really well.

**Shiohigari:**
At that time, I wanted friends who were doing similar things. I was in a light music club in college, which was fun, but I felt like I wanted to be friends with creators.

**Taro-chin:**
I understand.

**Shiohigari:**
I ended up getting to know people who were streaming on Ustream, like Shino from Hitorie.

**Taro-chin:**
I thought, “This is the person I want to follow.” Oi Shotaro-sensei really shaped my sense of humor.

**Taro-chin:**
Back then, we called it the “Humor Research Society.”

**Shiohigari:**
We just had drinking parties. We did that about three times a week.

**Taro-chin:**
We did that, I remember.

**Shiohigari:**
We always wanted to create interesting content.

**Taro-chin:**
But back then, we were all nobodies.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s true.

**Taro-chin:**
There might have been people with similar feelings. Some of them have become someone now.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s right. We are making a living now.

**Taro-chin:**
Just barely.

**Sakoda:**
When did Shiohigari and Taro-chin drink a lot and have fun?

**Shiohigari:**
I think the time we met the most was after I got a job. I graduated in 2011, so it was probably around 2013 to 2015.

**Taro-chin:**
That sounds about right. I think that was when I was not working much.

**Shiohigari:**
During that time, we were borrowing money to drink almost every week. I was stable then.

**Taro-chin:**
Since I was a working adult, it was natural to borrow money.

**Shiohigari:**
It was a natural flow.

**Taro-chin:**
It was just a normal thing to do.

**Shiohigari:**
We were lending money to each other naturally.

**Taro-chin:**
We did that. It was fun.

**Sakoda:**
I feel like the clubroom vibe has faded a bit since the 2010s.

**Shiohigari:**
That might be true.

**Sakoda:**
I think Tunnels is a good example. They had the ultimate clubroom vibe, a bad vibe, but it was fun. They peaked in the 1990s to 2000s, but that vibe continued into the 2000s. However, after the 2010s, that clubroom vibe disappeared.

The reason it disappeared is that the internet opened up, but the introduction of smartphones changed everything. Now, the internet has become a battlefield, where anyone can accuse anything under the guise of righteousness.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, it’s a really tough internet to live in.

**Sakoda:**
That’s true.

**Shiohigari:**
Things have changed a lot.

**Taro-chin:**
I’ve been saying for a long time that “the internet is only for introverts.” Until a certain point, that was definitely true.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s right.

**Taro-chin:**
When I was drinking with Gari-kun, just being on the internet or watching Nico Nico Douga was enough to clearly express a certain cluster. We could sense that we had similar sensibilities. But now, just saying you watch YouTube or use Twitter doesn’t reveal much about a person’s character. The internet has lost its ability to express those clusters. It’s just a “generic internet” attribute.

So now, you have to dig deeper into what kind of internet perspective someone has to understand them, making it harder to match.

**Shiohigari:**
That might be true.

**Taro-chin:**
It was definitely something for introverts.

**Shiohigari:**
It used to be.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah. The clubroom vibe was like that; we were the introverts trying to imitate the extroverts.

**Shiohigari:**
Exactly, it felt like we were mimicking the extroverts.

**Taro-chin:**
People who quit during high school or college were the ones who were in the second or third tier, and once everyone left, we finally started doing it. I was quite aware of that.

**Shiohigari:**
Yeah, I was meeting a lot of people back then. Among them, there were many who had moved on from the internet and were now working and had kids, but there are also many who are now thriving.

**Taro-chin:**
That’s true.

**Sakoda:**
But seeing the changes in the internet over time, now that Taro-chin has summarized it, we can navigate the current wave because we have the experience to read the atmosphere, including the premise that just being in our own cluster doesn’t define us on the internet.

**Taro-chin:**
I wonder if that’s really a good thing. Honestly, I haven’t liked the internet for the past five or ten years, and I feel like it’s not mine anymore.

**Shiohigari:**
That might be due to generational changes. I think this is really a sign of aging; everyone ends up thinking, “Things were better back then.” I try to resist that thought, but I still find myself thinking that way sometimes, and I feel like there’s nothing I can do about it. But when I think about whether I can do something other than the internet now, I realize I can’t, so I just keep doing it.

**Taro-chin:**
I think many people in other jobs feel the same way. After doing sales for 20 years, they might feel like they can’t do anything else and just continue into their 40s and 50s.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s definitely true.

—

**We Can Only Deliver as “Taro-chin” in Our 40s and 50s**
[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xesq7YCcc9g&list=PLZvoQyAeMAb0rJccNZGuEY01-kc-Y8fDK&index=3)

**Taro-chin:**
I feel like I’ve come this far as “Taro-chin,” and I have to continue as Taro-chin in my 40s and 50s, so that’s how I face the internet now.

**Shiohigari:**
I feel the same way, seriously.

**Taro-chin:**
We have to keep going as Shiohigari in our 40s and 50s.

**Shiohigari:**
Yeah, there’s no going back. I’ve been a Cheap Artist for 15 years.

**Taro-chin:**
Right. If someone asked me to go back to doing sales or something, I wouldn’t be able to do it.

**Shiohigari:**
It’s impossible. So if I were to go back to a company or get a job, it would have to be in this line of work as Shiohigari.

**Taro-chin:**
There might be other paths, but ultimately, we can only deliver our lives as Shiohigari and Taro-chin.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s really true.

**Taro-chin:**
That’s what it is. I have this kind of acceptance or resignation, and I feel like I’ve been able to do it. It’s not necessarily a super positive feeling; I see it more as a flat perspective.

**Shiohigari:**
That might be true. It feels like we can only die here.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, I’m ready for that.

**Shiohigari:**
Nostalgic.

**Taro-chin:**
We can only move forward.

**Shiohigari:**
Shall we move on to the second song?

**Taro-chin:**
Let’s go with the song title. Please listen to “Barabara” by Gen Hoshino.

[Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/intl-ja/track/0RFt3nrc40G6eJHgnvvDxv?si=90ec51a3b34c43d3)

**Shiohigari:**
This is a great song. It symbolizes Taro-chin.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, this was right in the middle of the time when I was drinking with Gari-kun. I was in my late 20s, and it was around the end of SAKEROCK for Gen Hoshino.

**Shiohigari:**
It was just before they disbanded.

**Taro-chin:**
At that time, I was surrounded by people who liked Gen Hoshino, and we were all crying.

**Shiohigari:**
I remember everyone was crying, and it was surprising (laughs).

**Taro-chin:**
I really loved the songs from the second album “Episode.”

**Shiohigari:**
That was before “Koi Dance.”

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, it was before that, and it was interesting to hear him sing birthday songs on Banana Man’s radio.

**Shiohigari:**
But during that time, my drinking really accelerated.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, I was drinking every day, listening to Gen Hoshino, and practicing guitar, even though I wasn’t working.

**Shiohigari:**
You were playing guitar.

**Taro-chin:**
There was a time when I played guitar every day, went for walks, and just drank shochu.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s right. The amount of alcohol I consumed was proportional to the shaking of Taro-chin’s hands, which became like a progressive knife (laughs).

**Taro-chin:**
During that time, I clearly decided that I would drink every day.

**Shiohigari:**
I see.

**Taro-chin:**
Before that, I liked drinking sake and high-proof alcohol, but I thought I should at least dilute it with water since I was going to drink every day.

**Shiohigari:**
I understand.

**Taro-chin:**
That’s when my life of drinking diluted shochu began, which lasted about ten years.

**Shiohigari:**
That makes sense. I was worried about you back then. Everyone was concerned because it was clear that Taro-chin was an alcoholic.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, that was probably true. I was at a point where I made that clear decision.

**Shiohigari:**
Right, you decided to live with alcohol.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, I thought I would die from it, and I was quite aware of that. Even when I was being transported during that severe acute pancreatitis episode, I was told in the ambulance, “You have to quit drinking,” and I thought, “There’s no way I’m quitting.” I had a strong consciousness that I was going to die from it.

**Shiohigari:**
I see. But now, you’ve become a tea enthusiast.

**Taro-chin:**
I didn’t become a tea enthusiast, though.

**Shiohigari:**
But I felt really relieved when we went for afternoon tea the other day.

**Taro-chin:**
We did go.

**Shiohigari:**
In the past, we would go to a cheap place and nibble on fries while discussing thin philosophy. Recently, we’ve been going to stylish curry places and cafes for tea.

**Taro-chin:**
The other day, we went to a nice hotel for afternoon tea, and I noticed that Taro-chin’s hands weren’t shaking at all. That really reassured me. I realized that many of my internet benefactors are passing away.

**Taro-chin:**
Yeah, Gari-kun mentioned it on his radio show, but many people around Gari-kun belong to the deeper side of the internet, leaning towards the darker aspects.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s true.

**Taro-chin:**
They are the ones who are really living the internet with their souls.

**Shiohigari:**
Exactly, they are typing with their souls, and they are worn out. The tip of their souls is worn down.

**Taro-chin:**
Our generation… well, that might be too broad a statement, but those who were deeply involved in the internet were really clustered together back then.

**Shiohigari:**
That’s true, especially since I liked those kinds of people.

**Taro-chin:**
I felt the same way.

**Shiohigari:**
They were all somewhat lacking in some way, and I liked taking care of those kinds of people, and I might still feel that way.

**Taro-chin:**
I would borrow money from them.

**Shiohigari:**
Right, we would lend each other money, and it felt like I had a hole in my shape that they could fill. It was a mutually comfortable relationship, almost like a co-dependency.

**Taro-chin:**
I felt like I was playing the sidekick role, like Batman and Robin (laughs).

**Shiohigari:**
There were many people who lived in the moment, betting their futures on the present. I was the opposite, thinking about the future at the expense of the present. Those who lived in the moment were being tapped on the shoulder by the Grim Reaper.

**Taro-chin:**
I felt like I was being held tightly.

**Shiohigari:**
It’s surprising that you got out of that. I didn’t think there was any insurance to get out of that.

**Taro-chin:**
I really thought that was the right way to live, and I still believe that. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. I have no regrets. I feel like I have to live my life sharpening my pencil, and there are people like that.

So when I talk about lacking, I think I’m drawn to those who are missing something because I have that part in me too. That’s probably why I’m drawn to Gen Hoshino’s “Barabara.”

**Shiohigari:**
That’s true.

**Taro-chin:**
Exactly.

**To be continued in #03**